1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to payment for broadcasted data provisioned to vehicles from a remote location.
2. Description of Related Art
Broadcasting systems for providing data (e.g., music, news, etc.) from a remote location to vehicles are well known in the art. As an example, a radio station can be used to broadcast data to radios included in the vehicles. Typically, when a vehicle travels too far from the radio or source station, or if there is interference by a structure or land mass, the signal of the broadcast data breaks up and fades into static.
As a result, systems and methods have been developed for a remote location to broadcast its data from far away to a vehicle's radio with greater clarity and reduced interference. For example, an XM Radio's ground station can transmit a signal to two orbiting satellites, which bounce the signals back down to radio receivers on the ground. The radio receivers are programmed to receive and unscramble the digital data signal, which contains up to 100 channels of digital audio. Thus, a vehicle equipped with an XM Radio receiver can travel through different cities without ever having to change the radio station on the vehicle.
To obtain revenue, a content provider (e.g., an XM content broadcaster or provider) may broadcast advertisements to vehicles having XM radio receivers by interrupting content with the advertisements. This revenue model is consistent with other conventional broadcast media providers. But, these advertising techniques are not desirable because the interruptions may reduce the enjoyment of the requested content.
A content provider may also obtain revenue by requiring an end user of an XM radio receiver to pay a subscription fee to access a desired XM channel. There are many drawbacks to the current method and system for subscribing to an desired XM signal. For example, there are numerous types of content that are offered to users via the subscribed XM signal, but a user may not want to pay for or subscribe to all of this content in the XM signal.
As a result, it would be desirable to provide a method and system that realizes the advantages of the above-described broadcasting system and also promotes revenue generation for the broadcasters and cost savings for the end-users. Specifically, there is a need for a system and method that allows for broadcasted data (e.g., music) to be provided via the above described system and for a user to pay for an individual piece of the data (e.g., a song) that overcomes the above-described shortcomings of the prior art while retaining their advantages.